WCC NEWS: WCC to observe 75th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

A girl carries a candle in a procession at the beginning of an interfaith service
in Nagasaki, Japan, to commemorate those who died as the result of the U.S.
atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/WCC, 2015.

August 2020 will mark 75 years since the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - attacks which devastated those cities and killed or injured several hundred thousands of people.  Many more suffered for years afterwards, from having been exposed to the deadly radiation released into the air and water on those days.

Since the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948 where those gathered declared that war with atomic weapons was a “sin against God and a degradation of man,” the WCC has continued to call for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

During the course of July and August, WCC will publish a series of blog posts highlighting different reflections and experiences of those who are calling for an end to nuclear weapons, from Japan, the Pacific, from nuclear weapons states and those advocating at the global level.

Read the first blog post: “75th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: has your country ratified the UN treaty?”, by Jennifer Philpot-Nissen

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania.

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